Page 79 - ACTL Journal_Sum24

Another of our inductees had a mom who was a music teacher college as the lead singer in a rock and roll band.
and this inductee grew up singing in synagogue choirs, bands,
and competitions and another inductee put himself through joining you all. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Dana. Very, very well done. Now, Dana’s remarks came from the brief statements we asked each of the new in- ductees to give us – but she wasn’t given a full deck. President Murphy asked each member of the class to send a note with something unusual and interesting about themselves . . . and the majority did. But we were about three dozen responses short. So I reminded – and warned – them. I cautioned “I have a vivid and vindictive imagination, and anyone who doesn’t give me a timely response should not be surprised to be written up as a former toe-fungus model.” That shook loose responses from a bunch more, but we still had about twenty no-shows. And one or two finally got back to me long after I had invented something, but I liked what I wrote better. So . . . the following bits about each of our new Fellows are either true (at least as perceived by the Fellow) or I totally made them up. Guess which is which.
NEW INDUCTEES
JENNIFER PARKER AINSWORTH, Tyler TX, Jennifer Ainsworth grew up in a small town in East Texas. After practicing in Houston, she returned to East Texas where she specializes in patent infringement and plies her full-time job is as a mom of two. She enjoys hunting, hiking, and running, ever more slowly.
JAMAL K. ALSAFFAR, Austin TX, is a fifth generation native Texan, half-Arab trial lawyer who, without explanation, claims that at age three he prevented
Saddam Hussein from driving his dad’s car. On his first date with his now law partner and boss, her first question was: “what are your views on the death penalty?” Jamal knocked the answer out of the park (against it, with footnotes). Three kids later, Jamal hopes to juggle law practice with managing the Manches- ter United Football Club in England.
MARK A. ATKINSON, Charleston WV, had nothing good to say about himself.
SCOTT S. BETHUNE, Kansas City MO, has served on multiple Judicial Nominating Commissions and reckons that he participated in the selection of a third of all Appellate and Supreme Court judges in the state and half of the judges in the
16th Circuit, so if you have any issues with – or compliments for – the state of the Missouri judiciary, call Scott.
GEOFF BRACKEN, Houston TX, played lacrosse at Dartmouth where his favorite course was Constitu- tional Law taught by longtime professor and lecturer, Vince Starzinger a/k/a The Zinger. Geoff worked
as a landman for an oil and gas company while he was in law school at the University of Houston and not tending the bar in which he owned a very small interest.
This inductee class is honored and humbled to be here
SUMMER 2024
JOURNAL 78